Entertainment

YouTube Cover Song Face-Off: Beyonce's "Best Thing I Never Had"

Each week, Mashable picks a popular song, finds 10 covers of it and asks you to vote for your favorite.

Beyonce entered the world on Sept. 4, 1981. Now it's 30 years later, and she's one of the most recognizable faces on the planet — so much so that her onstage baby bump reveal at the MTV Video Music Awards last Sunday shattered Twitter’s tweets-per-second record.

To help ring in her birthday this weekend, we've assembled some of her fans' "Best Thing I Never Had" covers, which have collectively attracted more than 3.2 million views on YouTube. Vote for your favorite rendition in the poll below.

Best Thing I Never Had Covers

Last Week's Face-Off Winner

The beatbox cover of Katy Perry's "Firework" from Peter Hollens snagged 60% of the votes in last week's face-off. Hollens covered "Firework" because of the song's inspirational message and uptempo beat. It "really highlights the message that we are all unique and special," he told Mashable.

Hollens — who appeared on season 2 of NBC's The Sing-Off and has strong fan bases on Facebook, Google+, Twitter and YouTube — recently released his first music video for an original song called "Sleepwalking" (see video number three below).

"I just want to be able to make a living making music and inspiring others," said Hollens, who wants to perform a duet with fellow YouTube cover artist/producer Kurt Schneider as well as celebrities Adele and Sara Bareilles. "I also hope to bring a cappella music to the forefront of popular music today ... and to teach everyone how to actually spell a cappella.”

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